Question:
Gum Disease Can Harm Much More Than Your Teeth ?
Answer:
A growing body of research suggests that periodontal disease may
exacerbate a variety of health problems as wide-ranging as diabetes,
heart disease, respiratory disease -- even premature births, experts
say.
For instance, several promising studies have found that blood-sugar
levels in diabetics with periodontal disease were reduced to normal
when the patients' gum disease was treated. Other research revealed
that the incidence of respiratory diseases among nursing-home residents
was cut when they were treated for gum disease, said Dr. Robert Genco,
distinguished professor of oral biology at the School of Dental
Medicine at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
"All of these are pilot studies, and whether [the periodontal disease]
is causal, we cannot say, but we can't ignore these associations,"
Genco said. "Further, from a practical standpoint, there is no harm in
treating periodontal disease in these patients."
Gum disease is very common, Genco explained. Approximately 80 percent
of Americans have some form of the condition, which is a bacterial
infection of the gums surrounding the teeth.
Gingivitis is the mildest and most common form of gum disease, causing
inflammation of the tissues around the teeth. More serious is
periodontitis, when the inflammation affects the connective tissue
supporting the teeth and, eventually, the bone. An estimated 20 percent
of Americans have periodontitis, making it the primary cause of tooth
loss in adults.
Periodontal pathogens are scarcely in symbiosis with us; they are
pathogenic. While I do think the screams of "clean up your gums or you
gonna die!" are self-serving, there is a lot of work being done with
"C-reactive-protein" mediated responses in the blood vessels around the
body, and I certainly don't have the standing to dispute them (and
believe me I'm as cynical as the next guy about this kind of stuff).
In general though, I wouldn't be too concerned about Forbes as a
primary clinical source at this stage.
We're talking about different things. Certainly there are many normal
resident oral bacteria. In fact, alteration in this flora (eg. by
long-term use of broad-spectrum antibiotics) often encourages
proliferation of non-sensitive strains (most classically yeast).
When I speak of periodontal pathogens, I'm talking about bacteria which
are not generally found in the healthy mouth. I'm years past my oral
microbiology, but there are certain bacteria implicated in periodontal
disease--these have been long demonstrated. My doubtless faulty memory
remembers Eichenella and Actinomyces sp., but apparently many others
have been implicated more recently.
http://tinyurl.com/zxvam
The classic studies involved sequential sampling of relatively
undisturbed dental plaque over a period of weeks. They scared us by
saying that the flora changed from gram-positive rods and cocci
(presumably the good guys) to gram negative rods and spirochetes (oh, no!)
In any case, it's clear that some patients never develop these
pathogens, and the introduction of some of these organisms into the
mouth has gotten more attention lately, esp. with our concerns about
communicable disease.
